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Inter County Championship 24-27 May

We avoided promotion, but it was a close call. Had Jon Watson hit in at a vital moment against Sussex we would probably have won that game and with it the match, giving us the sixth win. As it turned out, Sussex took the third promotion place, and good luck to them.

Saturday began with losses to Kent and Sussex and a win against Warwickshire, with the afternoon games held up by heavy showers. A 3-0 win against Wiltshire on Sunday (unbroken sunshine) was followed by losses to Berks & Oxon and Essex. The latter match saw Bryan Harral and John Bevington’s first defeat at 2nd pair and Howard Bottomley and Tom Anderson at 3rd pair undergoing the Fulford experience, with Robert doing a TPO at Howard’s expense and peeling his wife Susan through a few hoops en route. Tom was left with a series of long shots, and they lost -4T.

On Monday we moved to Compton and were joined by Tim Brewer. His debut was delayed as Dorset were unable to field a 3rd pair and he and partner George Collin played singles instead. After a bye in the afternoon we came up against the might of Middlesex and were soundly thrashed as they notched up two TPs. It rained lightly but insistently throughout. Not much fun for a first day. We stayed at Compton on Tuesday and won against Shropshire and Hampshire.

Our thanks to Howard for combining the roles of travel agent, team captain and team manager, the latter role much in evidence when manipulating the 3rd pair to accommodate study leave and a request for an  early finish.

Some statistics

1st pair  L L W W L W W L W W    Watson/ Marsh 6/10

2nd pair W W W W W L L L W L    Harral/Bevington 6/9    Harral/Brewer 0/1

3rd pair L L L W L L w/o L W W Bottomley/Collin 0/3    Bottomley/Anderson 2/3  Bottomley/Brewer 0/1  Collin/Brewer 2/0  Collin/Anderson 1/0

Matches won 5/10  Games won 16/30

Games going to time 11/30 (1st pair 2/10, 2nd pair 3/10, 3rd pair 6/10)

The team during the early stages of the last match against Hampshire. Jon Watson shows David Marsh how it’s done, Bryan Harral and Tim Brewer (seated) settle for a wide join across the corner, and Tom and Howard are transfixed by their opponents’ play

You can’t run a tournament without them – mowing and hoop re-setting at Southwick on Sunday evening.